‘She Betrayed Every Single American’: Military Veterans Still Fuming Over Chelsea Manning’s Commuted Sentence

Military vets are speaking out about Bradley Manning, who now goes by the name Chelsea Manning, and they’re not happy. Both liberals and conservatives have offered up some strong opinions as more details are released related to the WikiLeak documents that Private First Class Manning leaked to the public while serving in the American military.

The email dump that left millions of Americans vulnerable to attack can now be viewed up close and in detail. One former American soldier who spoke exclusively with Faithwire to condemn the commuted sentence.

The soldier, who we are calling Eric because he wished to remain anonymous, says Manning’s actions don’t add up.

“What Manning did was basically give terabytes of data to somebody who’s mission in life is to hurt the United States. (Manning)should do every (expletive) part of her sentence. Every second.”

The former U.S. soldier was commuted by President Obama on Jan. 17th, roughly 6 years into her 35-year prison sentence for leaking government and military documents to the anti-secrecy and public website of WikiLeaks, according to Fox News.

Originally, the former soldier was arrested and charged with espionage in 2010 by his previous known name, Bradley Manning. But in prison, Bradley transitioned to a female. A reason that he believes clouded his judgment while being deployed in Iraq.

Thanks to Obama, Manning’s sentence will expire on May 17th of this year. But to many soldiers like Eric, that’s a huge problem.

“When you sign the dotted line (and) when you raise your right hand to take that oath, you basically agree to make the military a priority before yourself and by extension the country and your fellow citizens.”

So Manning “should have known better” than to give government secrets over to someone like Julian Assange, an Australian computer programmer who founded the site and is considered by Eric, a person who “targeted” Manning.

However, Manning “Should have known better,” citing that if there was truly a concern over what the government was doing in Iraq, there should have been some documented discrimination. But there wasn’t. It was just a dump, there was no “discrimination” whatsoever.

“It really was too much information to be specific. Too much information to make it about one thing or another. It was just to hurt the country.”

And when asked by Faithwire if Eric himself had any concerns over government orders while he served in Iraq, he said, “I did things I didn’t know I would survive because I raised my right hand. That means something to me. I took that oath seriously. I was prepared to die in that uniform in combat.”

“This person put their own personal beliefs and agenda above the team and more importantly above the nation and above her fellow citizens who she swore to protect. That’s the antithesis of what we’re about.”

And because of that, “99 percent of the people I talk to in the military or veterans hate …. (her).”

“The thing that bothers me, is that this person broke their oath and they aren’t going to pay the consequences of breaking that oath.”

“If you believe in something enough like defending your country to risk your life for it and sacrifice your life for it,” then how could you do something like this? Its just sad.”She betrayed every single American.”

Eric was in the American military for four years and served as a sergeant and did a one year tour in Iraq.

The interviewee’s name has been changed for the purpose of this story.